A few weeks ago I had opened the hives and moved things around. My bee suit is several years old and I managed to tear a hole where the legs meet.
Of course I forgot about that minor detail.
Tuesday I went back into the hives. I often sit in front of the hives and hang out with the bees so they are used to me. I can mow and weedeat around the hives and they leave me alone.
I have one hive that is really aggressive when I inspect it. Doesn’t matter that we were best friends just yesterday. Once I open it up it’s on!
Since it’s been really hot and the bee suit is all covering I tend to not wear much underneath it.
So I suddenly remembered about the hole in the suit about the time I pulled the first super off the last (aggressive) hive and a couple of the residents started flying around my nethers.
Something I didn’t want to do was start dancing around or swat at the new tourists. All I could do was hope for the best.
So I kept working and monitored where the interlopers were.
We completed the inspection and had everything back together when they decided to object to flying around the suit.
I got stung of course. Twice. In the chest and the back almost exactly opposite of each other.
Betcha thought I got stung someplace else. I’m very glad that it wasn’t other places.